Do console-quality graphics plus Skype equal mobile bliss? Not quite.

Ever since rumors of the PlayStation Phone firststartedcirculatingyearsago, consumers have been eager for Sony to add mobile phone service to a full-fledged portable gaming system. The Xperia Play from Sony Ericsson proved a decent compromise, adding slide-out, PlayStation-style buttons to a full-featured Android Phone, but the phone’s software library remains a mish-mash of hastily adapted mobile titles and dated PlayStation “classics.”

The PlayStation Vita, on the other hand, has a software library that offers plenty of console-quality experiences, but the handheld device has relatively limited mobile connectivity. The 3G version of the Vita lets players use a contract-free cellular connection for everything from Web browsing to multiplayer gaming, but doesn't include a voice calling option that would make the unit into a true PlayStation Phone.

So when Sony finally released a Skype App for the Vita last month, it seemed like a sanctioned workaround to turn the system into a true PlayStation Phone, complete with its own phone number. Read on to find out how to modify your Skype account and Vita to turn the system into a VitaPhone—and for some impressions of why I found the whole process to be more hassle than it was worth in the end.

Step 0: Hardware and service

If you want to use the Vita as a cell phone, you obviously need the 3G version of the Vita hardware, which retails for $50 more than the $250 Wi-Fi only version. Getting a data plan on that model doesn't require a pre-paid contract; instead, you purchase a data-limited plan on a month-to-month basis through AT&T.

Skype calls to normal phones will eat up your data at a rate of roughly 1MB per minute, so the $30 mid-range 3GB data plan will get you up to 50 hours of mobile talk time (if you don’t use mobile data for anything else). If you’re not planning to talk that much, or if you’ll mainly be using your VitaPhone in range of an available Wi-Fi signal, you can scale back to 250MB of data for $15 per month. Heavy talkers can upgrade to a 5GB plan for $50 a month.

One important note: calls made directly to other Skype users take up roughly three times as much data as calls made to cell phones, eating through your cap that much more quickly. And video calls take up roughly 30 times as much data as do normal mobile calls, so be even more careful with your data plan if you plan on using Skype as a replacement for FaceTime.

The dialer for the Vita's Skype app requires you to hold the system with two hands

Step 1: Making calls to regular phones

While the ability to make free calls to other Skype users is useful, it’s not sufficient if we’re going to make the system a true cell phone replacement. For that, we need the ability to call actual phones.

Luckily, Skype offers a variety of cheap calling plans. For just $2.99 a month, you can get asubscription that lets you make unlimited calls to the US and Canada, which is a downright bargain compared to most standard cell phone plans. If you buy a full year of service at a time, you can save 15 percent and reduce the monthly cost to $2.55. For international calling, you can upgrade to a $13.99 monthly plan and make unlimited calls to 40 different countries, or just pay by the minute for reasonable rates.

One big limitation of the Vita’s Skype app is that it doesn't offer the ability to send text messages, either to fellow Skype users or to regular cell phones. Even if it did, Skype doesn't offer any “unlimited texting” options and normally charges an exorbitant 11.2 cents per text message sent to a mobile number, so frequent texters would face a hefty bill on their VitaPhones.

Step 2: Getting calls from others

If your Vita is going to act as a cell phone, it has to receive calls from normal landlines and cell phones as well. To accommodate this need, Skype offers the ability to purchase an “Online Number” that can represent you to the wider world of telephony. If you've already signed up for a calling subscription (as detailed above), you can get one of these numbers for $30 a year, or $2.50 a month.

The Vita receives calls even when in standby mode... just make sure the volume is up.

Unfortunately, Skype doesn’t offer a way to transfer an existing cell phone number over to its “mobile number” service, as you could if you were simply switching cell phone providers. Most of the major carriers offer a call forwarding service, which you can use to help ease people into the transition to your new number as long as you don’t cancel your old cell phone plan immediately. Costs differ by carrier, so be sure to check them out if you choose this option.

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

I'm having flashbacks to the Nokia N-Gage. Do you get better voice quality if you hold it sideways?

Damnit, I got distracted by IRC before I could make a side talkin' joke. Luckily I refreshed the window before posting!

Poor N-Gage. I was at the last E3 Nokia showed it, and it was just this sad wasteland of little stands holding N-Gages in grids, and absolutely no one playing on any of them. Meanwhile every other booth was swarmed or had people lining up to play things.

so the $30 mid-range 3GB data plan will get you up to 50 hours of mobile talk time

Quote:

Heavy talkers can upgrade to a 5GB plan for $50 a month.

In a world where cell companies offer plans in minutes, these sentences make no sense. Please use consistency in units, as a 3,000 minute plan for $30 is unheard of and something to be excited about (not that I'm going to do this, but it might appeal to one of the 23 ARS readers who are still doing any business with Sony after all of the recent hacking......)

On another note, this is why text messaging rates and the amount we pay for "regular" minutes is so outrageous......someday, when everything is VoIP, will we still be paying $30/mo for 450 minutes? Probably more, since those VoIP minutes will be "data enhanced".....

In a world where cell companies offer plans in minutes, these sentences make no sense. Please use consistency in units, as a 3,000 minute plan for $30 is unheard of and something to be excited about (not that I'm going to do this, but it might appeal to one of the 23 ARS readers who are still doing any business with Sony after all of the recent hacking......)

Are you being deliberately facetious or do you really not understand "x" amount of hours for "y" amount of money? How do you cope if someone says "I'll see you tomorrow" Demand they tell you "I'll see you in 1440 minutes", because otherwise "they don't make sense"

WOW...pretty low blow there author for (TAKING MY STORY) and (TRYING TO MAKE IT YOUR OWN)!U took my Title, Information, and didn't even have the decency to credit the ORIGINAL SOURCE.

I posted this discussion on us.playstation.com 2-3 days ago, and u go out and create Multiple Topics on the same subject?Unbelievable.People, don't take 1 mans' opinion and run with it, please visit this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA2OucLd9R4and decide for yourself.

WOW...pretty low blow there author for (TAKING MY STORY) and (TRYING TO MAKE IT YOUR OWN)!U took my Title, Information, and didn't even have the decency to credit the ORIGINAL SOURCE.

I posted this discussion on us.playstation.com 2-3 days ago, and u go out and create Multiple Topics on the same subject?Unbelievable.People, don't take 1 mans' opinion and run with it, please visit this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA2OucLd9R4and decide for yourself.

WOW...pretty low blow there author for (TAKING MY STORY) and (TRYING TO MAKE IT YOUR OWN)!U took my Title, Information, and didn't even have the decency to credit the ORIGINAL SOURCE.

I posted this discussion on us.playstation.com 2-3 days ago, and u go out and create Multiple Topics on the same subject?Unbelievable.People, don't take 1 mans' opinion and run with it, please visit this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA2OucLd9R4and decide for yourself.

Admins changed my topic, but was b4 very similar to the author of this topic.Shame on u Author..Game on!

I'm the editor on Kyle's story, and he had completed this more than a week ago and had pitched it to me much earlier than that. There's no copying of idea or anything else here.

So yeah, about the shitty page layout: I'm paying you money, fix this shit. It doesn't send me to the forums anymore when I click the comments link (like it's supposed to, as I have it in my settings), it's giving me multiple pages for multi-page articles (it's supposed to all be on one page, again, per my settings.) It's also using relative timestamps, instead of absolutes (again, the opposite of what I have it set to.)

Seriously, I'm paying you a freaking subscription, enable the convenience and readability features I'm paying you for. The new layout is bad enough, but you could at least make the settings I pay for fucking work.

It doesn't send me to the forums anymore when I click the comments link.

Sorry! Known issue, filed in our bug tracker already.

Quote:

it's giving me multiple pages for multi-page articles

Subscribers can still click to view on one page in the upper right. What's a bug is to have that setting stay fixed. Again, known issue, filed in our bug tracker already too.

Quote:

It's also using relative timestamps, instead of absolutes

We have changed the way timestamps work on the redesign. That setting was for story timestamps. You'll note they are all absolute now. There isn't even an option for them to be relative. We put relative stamps on the comments, where they're still useful. That's probably what you're noticing.

All of this would be much more helpful in our feedback forum, where I can be sure I don't miss your issues. I apologize for the slight downtime in some features, we value our subscribers, but there have been some mission critical bugs that require attention before we can fix some of the smaller details. I have a to-do list set up purely for subscribers.

Even if it did, Skype doesn't offer any “unlimited texting” options and normally charges an exorbitant 11.2 cents per text message sent to a mobile number

Doesn't this make it one of the cheapest per-message texting plans available? I think the "industry price" is closer to $.20 or $.25 per text now.

The worst part? I'm not a heavy texter, but I still need to use it from time to time so I end up paying the ripoff price because it's cheaper than the outrageous $20 the phone company wants per month for a text plan.

WOW...pretty low blow there author for (TAKING MY STORY) and (TRYING TO MAKE IT YOUR OWN)!U took my Title, Information, and didn't even have the decency to credit the ORIGINAL SOURCE.

I posted this discussion on us.playstation.com 2-3 days ago, and u go out and create Multiple Topics on the same subject?Unbelievable.People, don't take 1 mans' opinion and run with it, please visit this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA2OucLd9R4and decide for yourself.

Admins changed my topic, but was b4 very similar to the author of this topic.Shame on u Author..Game on!

I'm the editor on Kyle's story, and he had completed this more than a week ago and had pitched it to me much earlier than that. There's no copying of idea or anything else here.

BUT BUT BUT I thought of the idea more than two weeks ago and didn't get around to writing it yet. So really you stole my idea.SHAME ON YOU ARS!!!!

And on topic, I'm not surprised to hear that Skype to mobile phones had terrible quality, especially given the latencies involved in a 3G connection. Did you notice any difference between WiFi and 3G in your calling?

One further question - does it handoff seamlessly between WiFi and 3G? I've noticed that functionality is often missing or poorly done.

To be fair, voice quality on 3G connections leaves something to be desired already, so it's not a surprise that Skype is not much better. You may think the quality of your connection is fine, but try reading off something like a Windows activation code without using something like the NATO phonetic alphabet and see if the other person hears it correctly. The quality level is set just above the point where their phone centers get jammed with people complaining about the voice quality on normal conversations.

I never text and I don't even talk that often on my phone; when I do its usually at home. I might honestly go for this. Maybe wait till Black Friday for the best deal on 3G Vita and then switch. I've been looking forward to a Vita but had no reason to go 3G; but now I probably will. Thanks for the report Ars.

Pryopizm wrote:

undervillain wrote:

In a world where cell companies offer plans in minutes, one man dares to reference data plans in bytes. This summer, Kyle Orland is Vita Man.

Sony needs to be worried about Microsoft building a gaming phone. AFAIK Microsoft has no plans to do so, and as Sony has learned, the implementation for something like an XBox phone is tricky to say the least. This should not comfort Sony -- it's a rare opportunity for them, and they're about to miss it. The problem is MS has its own mobile OS, whereas Sony is stuck between Playstation's OS and Android. Another problem is that MS has experience dealing with fragmentation in PC games, whereas Sony hasn't had to deal with a multitude of devices that need to be compatible.

how about using a VOIP/SIP service, like sipgate.com use the android native client or csipsimple?I am sure it'd be cheaper than skype-in, and SIP uses more efficient codecs to use less data.

There was actually a nifty homebrew app for the PSP called Furikup that did this. However the android app would need to be ported by the developers, the Vita isn't an Android phone.

I kind of hate Sony's half assed attempts at this kind of stuff. Really, their Android phones aren't selling, their handheld is under threat by smartphones and unless they have a huge share in AT&T I don't know about they don't really have that much to lose here. Smartphones are basically gaming email machines, which is what the Vita is, only better. A decent VOIP setup could be quite incredible, although the biggest downside is still that constant network activity to see if a call is coming in. Might be better with the better baseband chips coming later this year though.

Also, back in about 1992 I recall saying that I wish my gameboy was a phone. I demand royalties from Sony for stealing my idea and Ars for writing about my stolen idea!

I've been looking for a phone that doesn't require a data plan as I only plan to use data in a wifi spot. Is there something on the market or hackable that will allow this.

SOP, in the US at least is that anything not a featurephone requires a data-enabled plan. That said, some providers _may_ offer a la carte data plans, so as long as you flag "never use mobile data, only wifi" in the settings, you should only pay slightly more than pure voice on a featurephone. That said, do keep in mind that SMS is normally counted as data, and if not, the rates are orders of magnitude higher than "normal data" is charged.

To be fair, voice quality on 3G connections leaves something to be desired already, so it's not a surprise that Skype is not much better. You may think the quality of your connection is fine, but try reading off something like a Windows activation code without using something like the NATO phonetic alphabet and see if the other person hears it correctly. The quality level is set just above the point where their phone centers get jammed with people complaining about the voice quality on normal conversations.

Voice doesn't use 3G, but regardless, the voice quality is going to vary wildly between handsets and carrier technology. Generally, I've found that voice quality seems best on the available CDMA networks around here (US Cellular and VZW). Best voice quality phone i've ever used was the original RAZR on USCC's network years ago.

I don't think Sony or Skype seriously expect anyone to turn the Vita into their full time phone, but thanks for testing the theory. In the interest of balance and fairness, can we now see how good iPhones and Androids (except the Xperia Play) are at playing FIFA 12, Metal Gear Solid HD and so on

$30/months for 3GB/month of data traffic? Seriously? And I thought Italy was bad. With H3G a data plan for a voice SIM costs as low as 5€/month for 100MB/day. A data only SIM card can have a plan of 500MB/day for 19€/month. Otherwise 1GB/day for 33€/month. And you know what? I still find it OUTRAGEOUS.

Anyway, Sony could well made a PS Vita Phone. Not many like to carry a smartphone and a gaming handheld, They end up playing with the smartphone.